Soxy by Sadie Fisher
A collaboration between Glenn-emlyn Richards and Sadie Fisher for the Comma Press Poetry Film Festival 2010. Fisher describes herself as
a writer of short fictions;
an actress of clear convictions;
an image maker & photoshop breaker;
a producer of films & inconstant lover of sox.
Cairo by Yahia Lababidi
Tim Pieraccini made the video and recorded the reading, as well. Yahia Lababidi says that all his videos on YouTube illustrate poems from a collection called Fever Dreams, forthcoming from Crisis Chronicles Press.
Swimming Into Winter by Freya Manfred
Another MotionPoems production, intriguing to me because of the minimalist filming (though I liked the poem too, of course). The note on YouTube says:
A poem by Freya Manfred interpreted and filmed by Gregory Winter. Edited by Jeff Stickles and sound design and music by Tom Lecher, Ross Nelson and Echo Boys Music. Read by Freya Manfred.
How cool is it that the filmmaker’s name is Winter?! Freya Manfred is a Midwestern poet and the author of six books of poetry, a novel, and a literary memoir. According to her publisher Red Dragonfly Press, “Her half hour poem for television: ‘The Madwoman and the Mask’ appeared on KTCA-TV, Channel 2, in 1991.”
If you like what Todd Boss and Angella Kassube are doing at MotionPoems, don’t forget to send some holiday cheer their way.
The Crystal Gazer by Sara Teasdale
Film student Casey Regan directs. (For the rest of the credits, see Vimeo.)
MacAdam Takes to the Sea by Andrew Philip
A masterful filmpoem by Alastair Cook — be sure to expand it to full-screen size. Check out Andrew Philip’s website. In an accompanying note on Vimeo, Cook indicates that the film was commissioned for the Hidden Door festival in Edinburgh, where it premiered last month.
Leave It All Up To Me by Major Jackson
Another whiteboard animation for a Major Jackson poem by Bryan Hartzell (see also his version of “Migration“).
The Trees—They Were Once Good Men by Todd Boss
A stunningly beautiful animation by Emma Burghardt, who also animated “Old Astronauts” by Tim Noland. (Remember to support MotionPoems with a donation, if you can.)
Sonnet XVII from 100 Love Sonnets (Cien Sonetos de Amor) by Pablo Neruda
Julianna Castigliego notes that this was an “Emerson College Film 1 final film project. 16mm. Shot on Bolex. Edited on Steenbeck.” This is the same poem, translated by Stephen Tapscott, that was featured in the motion picture Patch Adams.
Hate Poem by Julie Sheehan
High school student Wiyaka His Horse Is Thunder recites the poem as part of the Poetry Out Loud national recitation contest, in a slickly produced video directed by Tony Brave for KOLC-TV of Oglala Lakota College. As Sheehan notes in an essay about the poem, the poem has become a favorite with students in the competition.
